Not to be read if you haven't seen the British version of 'Life On Mars'. That means you, Uncle Brian-El. Go back to Krypton and sit this one out.

I guess the same could be said for anyone who didn't see the American version either.....

Back in November, I felt confident enough about what I knew so far concerning the American version of 'Life On Mars', that I decided to theorize about what was going on and how two different versions of the same story could share the same Toobworld.

Is Sam clicking Windy's button?

At the time, the producers had not yet said anything about what the show's ultimate revelation would be, specifically that they were not going to follow the British template. So I was operating under the assumption that the American Sam was in a coma, and that he was hallucinating his own version of British Sam's 1973 world - based on purloined psych reports that somebody in Great Britain had passed on to American Sam because of the coincidence of names and certain situations between their two lives.

But of course, that sort of suggestion depended on Sam Tyler really existing in 2008.

I think the hope that both series can exist in the TV dimension (without driving each other crazy - oops. Sorry about that, Chief!) can still be maintained. It just means that somebody else in the series had access to the psych profile of Sam Tyler of Manchester, England.

And everyone knows it's Windy.*

Not meaning to break my arm by patting myself on the back, but I figured Windy was truly a construct of Sam's imagination back on November 7th in another blog post: "NYPD Detective Sam Tyler in 'Life On Mars' (the US version) has a neighbor named Windy (whom I think is an hallucination within a hallucination, which may have already been established)."

But I never guessed she'd be revealed in the finale to be the on-board computer guiding not only the spacecraft, but also the neural stim dreams each of the crew had during the trip while in suspended animation.

By 2035, computers are going to be so advanced, they'll be able to hold all the world's information in storage banks even smaller than they are now. So it's pozz'ble, just pozz'ble that "Windy" (I didn't catch what the computer's actual monkier was - WND4B?) had access to everything in the world ever stored on a computer, even if it had nothing to do with the Mars mission. And it could utilize this info to enhance the dreams of all the astronauts on board.I'm thinking "Windy" was a more advanced version of "Ziggy", used decades earlier by that 'Quantum Leap' project in the secret New Mexico mountains facility. Ziggy had access to all sorts of arcane and trivial information based on thousands of news reports fed into the databanks. Decades later, Windy had access to that same information... information... information, with the storage capacity for plenty more - including police psychological profiles from over a generation before and from all over the world.

Based on what we learned from the final episode, astronaut Sam Tyler had chosen the milieu of 2008 to be the basis for his neural stim dream to keep his mind active during suspended animation. Now, it's always been the contention of Toobworld Central that TV characters are the same age as the actors who play them, unless otherwise stated.

(Take Roaring Chicken, Hekawi medicine man on 'F Troop' as an example - I think he was supposed to be over one hundred years old! Edward Everett Horton, who played Roaring Chicken, was in his 80s when he died. And in the opposite direction, Terry O'Quinn is playing John Locke several years younger than he really is on 'Lost'.)

So I'm thinking that Sam Tyler, based on Jason O'Mara's age, is about 37. That means he was about ten years old back in 2008. Why he chose a detective as his persona, I have no idea, but something about that time period meant a lot to him and he wanted this chance to explore it again.

But then there was the meteor strike that damaged the computer system, specifically the neural stim dream being fed to Sam. (This would be at the moment in Sam's dream when he was struck down by the car.) So Windy had to improvise and feed him a new set of information. That's when it open the stored files about Manchester police detective Sam Tyler - It was probably the name that tripped Windy's access as it scrambled to create the parameters for a new dream sequence.Windy used the same scenario as Sam reported back in the late 2000's, but because of the damage caused by the meteor, there were glitches.

Sam remembered the 2008 scenario even as he was immersed into the world of 1973.Windy had to cull the avatars for the other crew members to supply a "cushion" around Sam in order to protect his mind. On a deep, sub-conscious level, he knew that he could trust these other four with whom he "worked". And it could be that some of their neural stim dreams were seeping into Sam's program as well. We only know about the nature of one other dream sequence - that of Ray Carling. He said that his choice had been a desert island fantasy where he was surrounded by only beautiful women... and men with no penises. Since Windy didn't contradict him, that's probably true. And it could explain Sam's distaste for Ray within the context of the 1973 dream.

And it also created an avatar for itself in the form of Sam's neighbor in 4B. (Like the computer Agnes in that 'Twilight Zone' episode with Wally Cox, Windy may have developed emotional sentience and then fallen in love with Sam in that dream world. It did seem strange that "she" wound up in his bed in the final episode - probably "her" only chance since he was close to waking up from his induced sleep.....)

It may be that most of the 1973 flavor to Sam's mental world was being supplied by the neural stim dreams of his father, Major Tom Tyler. He must have been one hell of a scientist to be allowed on the trip at the age of 70 - which means he was about 8 years old in 1973. And for alls I know, as Stuart Best would say, it was his revenge fantasy against his father that fed into Sam's dream. After all, Sam's dream father didn't look like a young Major Tom. ("Gene Hunt" as we knew him through most of the series.) But it was Major Tom as Gene Hunt who eventually gunned down Sam's dad in the dream.

The name of Sam's dad in that dream-state? Vic... as in "victim"? Ahhh, I'm probably reading too much into that. But Vic Tyler was probably Sam's grandfather, and Tom Tyler was the one who had problems with him, which he could have been wrestling with in his own dream.If there are any discrepancies in the facts about 1973, - if a song was used on the soundtrack that hadn't come out yet in 1973, let's say - they could be ascribed to the damage done to Windy's memory banks by the meteor. That would clear up a LOT of Zonks for the show.

We'd have to look at the pop culture references made during Sam's dream to see if they could be splained away in connection to them being supplied by the ship's computer. And there are three that come to mind.

1] Sam mentioned that Mary Tyler Moore was on TV, and how she could turn the world on with her smile.

Not a problem - in Toobworld, Mary would be an actress, and instead of quoting a theme song lyric, Sam was merely stating a fact.

2] The avatar that Windy created for herself wanted to know if Sam knew who Steve McGarrett was, and he replied sure - McGarrett was connected to "Five-O".

In the massive data dump which it had accessed to, Windy would have police files from Hawaii as well as from Manchester, England. The same would be true of Lt. 'Columbo' from the Los Angeles Homicide division, mentioned by Ray in the final episode.

3] Frank Morgan told Sam that he was in love with Angie Dickinson as Pepper Anderson on 'Police Woman'; he wanted to go to Maine and make babies with her.

Not a Zonk here either. In Toobworld, Pepper Anderson must have become famous enough that they made a TV show about her. And in Toobworld, their version of the show aired a year earlier than the one we know in the real world.

So anyhoo..... I think I've blathered on enough about Windy the computer. Time to go into sleep mode......

BCnU!Toby O'B

* The song "Windy" has another rainbow reference to tie in with the "Wizard Of Oz" theme: "Who's bending down to give me a rainbow?"

I've already gone into detail about why I liked the finale to the American version of 'Life On Mars' as a viewer. But as a caretaker for the Toobworld concept, in which all TV shows should be connected, sharing the same universe, there's another reason why I liked it so much.

It fits quite nicely into the Toobworld timeline:

2032A manned Earth mission to Mars, the Ares IV, took place under the command of Lieutenant John Kelly. (VOY: "One Small Step"; ENT: "Demons") 2035Project Aries spacecraft lands on Mars.('Life On Mars')

2097A Mars colony is established. ('Mercy Point')

2100Mars is colonized. ('Babylon 5') 2103Mars is colonized by humans.('Star Trek') The dates that don't fit well into the timeline for Earth Prime-Time are those for Ray Bradbury's stories; they took place far earlier - if our world followed his chronology, we'd be living on the Red Planet by now. So Ray Bradbury's "Martian Chronicles" should be in an alternate TV dimension, more than likely by itself, unless there are other shows which have such an accelerated timeline.

In 2067, an alien race known as the Mysterons builds a base on Mars. They have no physical form and are willing to establish peaceful contact with the people of Earth. But when their surveillance equipment is mistaken for weaponry, the Humans launch an attack on the Mysteron base. This will happen in the TV series 'Captain Scarlet And The Mysterions', but because that was populated by puppets who have replaced real humans, they should be relegated to a dimension shared by 'Davy And Goliath', 'Moral Orel', 'Robot Chicken', and the other Gerry Anderson programs. (Supermarionation be damned!)

And all the events on Mars by the year 3000, as depicted in 'Futurama', take place in the Tooniverse, of course. In a previous post, I said that the Ares IV was a one-mission. Looking over that description above, it looks like there was more than one crew member on board. No matter. I think with an accelerated mission to Mars, the trips would overlap. By the time the Aries Project crew (on the Hyde 1-2-5?) arrived, the Ares IV crew might even still be there, performing the prep work for terra-forming. If not, they probably passed each other in their space commutes.

Now there are three different dates listed for colonization of Mars, thanks to 'Mercy Point', 'Babylon 5', and 'Star Trek'. I see no problem with this; it's a matter of semantics, I guess. The 'Mercy Point' date is when it was established, so that means when it began. The 'Star Trek' date is probably when the project was completed. And as far as the 'B5' date goes, somebody probably just rounded it off.(Notice that the 'Star Trek' entry says that Mars was colonized in 2003 - by humans. Of course, we already know - from 'My Favorite Martian', 'Doctor Who', 'The Twilight Zone', 'War Of The Worlds', and 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' - that Mars was already populated by several sentient species......) So since 'Life On Mars' didn't cause any major Zonks when it came to the timeline, I welcome it into Earth Prime-Time.

As to both versions of 'Life On Mars' sharing the same TV Universe, that'll be dealt with in a later post today.

As was the case with the original version of 'Life On Mars', the American counterpart had a killer soundtrack from the early 70's. The final episode was named after one of those songs, and "Life Is A Rock" crazily summed up the entire era and its music. It was the perfect song to illustrate that this would be the wrap-up as well for the series.

One reason: in the lyrics David Bowie is mentioned. (Immediately followed by my all-time favorite group, Steely Dan. See? It's always about me!) For both series and even for 'Ashes To Ashes' (the sequel to the UK's version), Bowie's music has been an inspiration.

The second reason (and my favorite): The lyrics suggest a connection to "The Wizard Of Oz", which played out to the very end of the 1973 sequence (and with the return of Frank Morgan in the 2035 sequence).

"Life is a rock but the radio rolled me

At the end of my rainbow lies a golden oldie"

"Life Is A Rock" is an infectious song and probably impossible to sing along. So here's a YouTube video that helps out with a picture guide......

Perhaps in an attempt to keep the audience from guessing the secret as to why Sam found himself in 1973, the producers had the mysterious powers that be identified as "The Aries Project". With that spelling, a homonym of "Ares", I think they didn't want us to consider "Life On Mars" to have a literal meaning.

Ares is, of course, the God of War in Greek mythology, a real entity in Toobworld (perhaps best known as played by the late Kevin Smith in 'Hercules: The Legendary Journeys). Aries is a Zodiac sign, that of the ram.

But at least we know that the producers knew the difference. The logo for the Aries Project was of a ram's head.

Just a few years earlier, there was a manned space flight to Mars, the Ares IV (mentioned in 'Star Trek: Voyager' and 'Enterprise'), with only one astronaut. This project had to be ready to go, considering the time for travel to Mars; they were probably just waiting to hear if that space mission was a success before launching.

In the meantime, there was probably some public relations imbroglio over the use of the name Ares, considering its connections to the idea of war. Since it was an all-American crew (At least I'm assuming so - Commander Norris didn't speak much; perhaps she was English, or Canadian.), maybe some country who'll be antagonistic to the USA by that point in time objected to the mission on general principle that it was being used as an act of aggression.

So to placate those who objected to "the Ares Project", an "i" was inserted into the name. O'Bviously it could be seen as a thumb to the nose towards the protesters. (I could even see them promoting it as "Now there is an 'i' in 'team'.", since this would be the first team mission to Mars.

In the finale of 'Life On Mars', we learn that President Obama wanted to be on hand to greet the astronauts when they awoke from their two-year sleep in suspended animation. Unfortunately, her father was ill, so she and her sister had gone back to Chicago to be with him.

So the implication is that one of the Obama daughters grows up to be the President of the United States. But we never learn if it was either Malia or Sasha.

I'm leaning towards Malia, as she would be 37 in 2035. (Born July 4, 1998)

However.... several people, especially among the excellent commenters at Alan Sepinwall's blog, "What's Alan Watching?" (link to the left, citizen), have pointed out that neither of the two girls would have been old enough to be elected President, according to the Constitution of the United States of America. Article 2 of the Constitution establishes a minimum age limit of 35 in order to be president:

"No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States."The last election by 2035 will have taken place on November 2, 2032. (One month before, on October 15, it is predicted that Phoebe Buffay from 'Friends' will pass away.) Malia will only be 34 and ineligible to run for the office.So I thought that maybe she could have been on the 2032 ticket as the Vice Presidential candidate. Maybe at some point after the inauguration but before 2035, the President will have died and so Malia Obama is sworn in as the new POTUS.And then the 12th Amendment put a kibosh on that:

"But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."So much for that... at least, as the Constitution stands now.Between now and 2032, there is plenty of time to enact a new Amendment that would lower the age to say, 30. There are factions out there trying to amend the Constitution so that foreigners can for the Presidency, for Ah-nuld's sake; so why not lower the age limitation at the same time?Remember, it's all Toobworld, not the real world. Who knows? Probably by then talking horses will be allowed to run for office as well as vote. Why not? In the real world, we've already got plenty of asses in government...... BCnU!Toby O'B

PS:Remembering that Lisa Bonet's name had been in the opening credits, I thought maybe the producers originally wanted her to portray President Obama, thus showing how she was integrated into Sam's neural stim dream. But I guess she was merely relegated to a voice-over quote as Sam was waking up.

"There is nothing wrong with your television set."The Control Voice'The Outer Limits'

Regarding the finale of the American version of 'Life On Mars': I liked it; I really liked it. (Cue up "Out Here In The Sally Fields")

The producers played fair with the audience - at least since they came back from that obscenely long hiatus imposed by the network suits* - by planting clues through the second half of the season. And even the mystery behind Windy was evident from the series beginning, which - patting myself on the back - I nailed back in November of last year.

The answer was always there right under our noses, before our eyes each week in the title, which they cleverly tied in with the true meaning of the name "Gene Hunt". In a way, that big reveal at the end reminded me of 'The Prisoner', another show that told its story in 17 episodes (and left a lot of the audience angry at the payoff.) With 'The Prisoner', the big reveal could be found in the opening dialogue heard almost every week:

SIX:Who is Number One?TWO: You are Number Six.Now read that again, with an appropriately placed comma......

I have no faith in the general American TV audience; I've stated that here in the past. If they had any real spark of discernment, shows like 'American Idol', 'America's Top Model', 'Project Runway', 'The Biggest Loser', 'The Apprentice' and 'The Bachelor' would not be so popular.

So I know the audience at large would never have accepted the original series ending. The PTC would have been leading the charge of protest, probably in league with the Church.

Working with what they had, and wanting something different from the original to maintain the suspense, the producers took all the basics (They even had a splainin for the 2008 car crash!) and came up with an ending that - to me - felt very American. After all, haven't we always seen ourselves as pioneers? And from the earliest days of Television, haven't we always gotten our sci-fi geek/freak on?

My favorite bit in that finale - mention of President Obama, but we never find out if she's Malia or Sasha.

Taken for all in all, I think the producers were successful in wrapping up the storyline. And how many shows with poor ratings ever get that chance? 'Pushing Daisies' didn't; not 'Eli Stone' or 'Coronet Blue'... certainly not 'Reunion'!

For my quatloos, it was a better ending than 'The Sopranos' - and unlike 'Life On Mars', in my opinion, that show ran way too long.

And how could you beat that final image? It's my computer wallpaper now! (Sorry, Rhiannon.....)

[Thanks to MediumRob for the fantastic frame grabs - and more to come, because I'm not done with this topic, mmmmkay?]BCnU!Toby O'B

Friday, April 3, 2009

NBC next Thursday in the berth that had been the home for 'ER' (which ended tonight). In fact, its producer is John Wells, who oversaw 'ER' as well.

So I just finished watching the episode. As far as the TV Universe goes, it was pretty realistic. But it's just not something I'll be watching on a regular basis; in fact, I'll probably treat it like 'ER' - tune in if an interesting guest star (or one of my friends) shows up in an episode.

However, I did get a theoretical Toobworldly connection out of it. After the rookie Ben shot down a cop-shooter, his mentor asked him where did he shoot like that - "At the Beverly Hills Gun Club?"

There used to be a Beverly Hills Gun Club indoor shooting range. There's now a blog using that name, since 2007. It served as a location in the movie "Beverly Hills Cop II". But for Toobworld purposes, I'd like to think that his character of Officer John Cooper was referring to a movie by that name, written by Adam Rafkin and produced by Peter Dragon - as seen in the TV series 'Action'.

Also, it's pozz'ble - until some future episode when it could get disputed - that Officer Cooper is the son of John Cooper, as played by Bo Hopkins on a few episodes of 'The Rockford Files'...... BCnU!Toby O'B

During World War One, Benito Mussolini was a freedom fighter trying to drive the Hun out of northern Italy. He was possessed by the ghost of Emperor Nero, who helped him and his comrades in destroying a Nazi ambush. At least that's how History plays out in an episode of 'The Time Tunnel'. By the end of "Nero's Ghost", it's suggested that Nero will remain in possession of Mussolini's body and lead him and Italy to their infamy during World War Two.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Coming up in the second season of 'Ashes To Ashes', Alex Drake will have another vision via her TV set of her life back in the "real world". And this time, the venue for that vision will be a classic British children's series, 'Grange Hill'.Unable to get involved, Alex will watch her daughter Molly get sent to Mrs. McClusky's office (Was she the principal?) after fighting with one of the show's most famous characters, Tucker. (Tucker apparently told Molly that her Mum was dead.)And as Mrs. McClusky talks to Molly, it dawns on the girl that something must have happened with her mother.......I'm not going to make any speculation about this until I actually see the scene. Will 'Grange Hill' be mentioned as a series? Could we just assume that Alex is hallucinating any school of that era? (I'm assuming the scenes in which Molly is interjected were culled from episodes broadcast back in the early 80s?)But I'm not going to be surprised if this turns out to be another Zonk of a headache!BCnU!Toby O'B

We're going for a "foolish" theme for April when it comes to the TV Crossover Hall of Fame inductees; and for the first week, celebrating the League of Themselves, we wanted to show that just because you're rich, that doesn't mean you're not a fool.

And so, Donald Trump... You're inducted. [Trump is seen here with a future Hall of Famer, probably in the Fool category as well - Larry King.]

The list of his credits - qualifications for induction - would be so much longer if we included all the reality shows like 'The Girls Next Door' (with fellow inductee Hugh Hefner), and appearances on such shows as 'Saturday Night Live' and 'MMC' (the latest incarnation of 'The Mickey Mouse Club'. But we'll do just fine with those series in which Trump's fictional televersion appeared, without even calling on 'The Apprentice':

Later this year the BBC will air "Mrs. Mandela", a TV movie about the life of Winnie Mandela, the former wife of Nelson Mandela. As the BBC says, the movie will be "a love story, a triumph and a tragedy, charting Winnie Mandela's progression from innocent country girl to politicised fighter against apartheid, from adoring wife to revolutionary firebrand."

Sophie Okonedo stars as Winnie Mandela while David Harewood will portray Nelson Mandela. David Morrissey will play the role of police interrogator Theunis Swanepoel.

For those curious about those Canadian "McElroy And LeFleur" movies that Robin mentioned in this week's episode of 'How I Met Your Mother', there's no need to trouble yourself with looking them up at the IMDb; TV columnist Rich Heldenfels takes a look at their history....

Welcome to another edition of "Tied-Up". I'm your editrix, Mrs. I.M. Raipt, and this is the monthly newsletter for those dabbling in speculative "slash" fiction based on TV shows. We're probably the most reviled bunch of rip-off writers working illegally on the internet today, so it's always safer to be in numbers - and that's why our group, the IAMSFW, was started.

So let's take a look at what some of our members have been working on:

"MR. MONK SAID YOU'LL SPANK ME LATER"L.E. Gildborg has come up with yet another in his long line of 'Monk' rip-offs. This time around, Adrian Monk experiments with bondage. But as always, the novel ends up with a four-way orgy involving his assistant Natalie and his friends in the police department, Captain Stottlemeyer and Lt. Disher. There is a twist, however. Sharona comes back to join in the fun, which freaks out Mr. Monk - he never did care for odd numbers.....

"TIME FOR HER TUNNEL"Having finished with his re-imagined series of "skinjob" porn for 'Battlestar Galactica', R. Mooron is having a go at creating a series of rape fantasies centered around 'The Time Tunnel'. He promises that each short story in the collection will either feature Dr. Anne MacGregor being sodomized by someone in the Operation TickTock facility, or Tony and Doug having their way with the women they meet throughout History. Here we see Dr. Ray Swain sodomizing Anne in one of the lighter stories.....

"HULK SCREW POOCH!"Continuing her series in which TV superheroes delve into bestiality, Ms. J. Asspinchin presents this adorable little tale - or is it tail? - in which 'The Incredible Hulk' causes some poor dog to explode. I'm sure it will prove as popular as her story last month, which featured 'The Greatest American Hero' and an emu......

"ROGER? RAM THIS!"J. Whored has come up with a real beaut when it comes to cartoon slash-fic, as he explores the obscene phone calls made by General Brassbottom from the 'Roger Ramjet' series. It's all presented as dialogue, something like a one-man play......

"A ROYAL PAIN IN THE ASS"Jumping on the 'Kings' bandwagon before NBC yanks it off the air, M. Gangreen takes us to the royal bedchamber where Silas subjects David to a very special "investiture ceremony". The story really heats up though, when David introduces Silas to "Little Goliath"....

"AC69"I don't think "Tied-Up" has ever had such a combination of slash-fic as S.J. Cannelingis presents this week, with his mix of a news broadcast and puppetphilia..... And finally....."WHO IN THE WORLD IS IN MATT LAUER?"We have an anonymous submission this month, which takes a "probing" look backstage at the 'Today' show. Rumor has it that the story was written by one of the on-screen personalities involved!

I don't know about you, but the whole idea gives me the Willards.....

Well, that wraps it up for another "Tied-Up" email newsletter for IAMSFW, the society of slash-fic writers. But before we go, let me just add......

Just An Old Cowhand On The TiVo Grande

As the Trickster once said, "Reality is boring, that's why I change it whenever I can."
I'm just "The Man Who Viewed Too Much", and "Inner Toob" is a blog exploring and celebrating the 'reality' of an alternate universe in which everything that ever happened on TV actually takes place.
Most of my theories about the TV Universe come from thinking inside the box and thus can't be proven. But I've never been one to shy away from a tall tale.....
Remember: "The more you watch, the more you've seen!"